Rob Ford calls for property tax freeze

Mayor Rob Ford has called for a property tax freeze in a letter to the city manager that made its way around city hall on Thursday.

In the five-page document obtained by the National Post, Mr. Ford called for staff to create draft budgets for the next three years, making sure to cap property-tax increases at 1.75% in 2013 and reduce them to zero for 2014 and 2015.

The move comes on the heels of a controversial transit proposal that plans to draw funding from property-tax dollars, but the mastermind behind the OneCity transit plan said a tax freeze wouldn’t interfere with her funding model.

“No, no, no,” City Councillor and TTC Chair Karen Stinz said. “I don’t think this has anything to do with OneCity.”

The $30-billion OneCity project would develop 170 kilometres in new transit lines over 30 years, funded by the “equivalent” of 1.9% property-tax increase.

The funding strategy, dubbed the CVA Uplift model, would capture a portion of the property-value increases and funnel that money into a dedicated transit fund. While it would amount to a gradual tax increase of $180 a year by 2016, Ms. Stintz said it’s not a technical increase covered by a tax freeze.

“It’s separate from a general property-tax increase,” she said. “If we’re going to raise money towards a dedicated transit fund than we want to keep our general tax rate as low as we can,” she said.

The letter, which was distributed to city manager Joe Pennachetti and a handful of city councillors and budget committee members, made no reference to OneCity, and the mayor’s office would not comment on the matter Thursday.

Titled “Guidance on the Development of 2013-15 Budgets,” the letter did ask for money to be allocated to new TTC streetcars and for improvements on the city’s ten most-congested roads.